Olympia v Northern Rangers

81′ SHOT ON! Hill gets up to nod a corner on target but it is straight at Connolly and he collects easily.

Into the 81st now, not a lot to talk about last few minutes.

73′ SLICE OF CHEESE! Sammut goes into the book for a poor challenge.

68′ SUB! OFF: Cartwright ON: Bellini

67′ GOAL! But not for the Rangers. Sklenar does some super work down the right hand flank, flicking a ball past the defender before slotting a perfect ball to the near post where Hoy had made a great run, he finishes past Connolly to make it 4-2.

65′ GOAL! Stephens inexplicably gifts the ball to Appleyard who was standing alone on the edge of the 18 yard box, right smack bang in the middle. He shoots, Cole gets a hand to it but it trickles into the back of the net. Olympia have let the Rangers back into the game! GAME ON!

60′ SAVE! Connolly comes up big again, diving to his right to deny a powerful Mearns header after Sammut had found him towards the edge of the 6 yard box.

53′ SUB! OFF: Undy ON: Hoy

52′ GOAL! THE ZINGER BURGER STRIKES! Low and hard and to the right, it is a cracking strike and its now 3-1. Game on?

51′ FREE IN A DANGEROUS AREA FOR RANGERS. Nick L.A. or Tenzing-Anderson to take.

48′ NEARLY A GOAL! Rangers take a corner and play it to Thannhauser who is unexplicably free inside the 18 yard box,he shoots and it’s deflected. The deflection flies narrowly wide of the left hand post and out for another corner.

SECOND HALF UNDERWAY!

Scintillating game of fusbal at half time, Wiggo the comfortable victor.

HALF TIME! Olympia doing it comfortably at Warrior Park.

45′ GOAL! Sklenar completes a first half hattrick! Cartwright finds him at the back post and he slots home easily.

40′ SAVE! Connolly makes yet another important save as Cartwright returns the favour to Undy and picks him out inside the left hand channel in the 18 yard box.

38′ SHOT ON, SAVE AND A BLOCK! All happening here as Undy releases Cartwright into the 18 yard box on the right. Cartwright drives a stinging shot on target and Connolly dives to his left to save it. The rebound heads towards Sklenar and he dives to put a header on target but its blocked on the line and cleared away!

35′ SHOT BLOCKED! Hess volleys a powerful shot on target but its blocked, luckily for the Rangers.

33′ CROSSBAR! Undy takes the free from about 20 yards out and it cannons off the crossbar and back into play. He rubs his head in frustration.

31′ JUST WIDE! Big ol Vandermey nods a header just wide of the right hand post from a free kick.

26′ GOAL! Some uncertainty here as the assistant referee takes a while to decide on the validity of a stunning goal from Sklenar! Undy crosses from the right and Sklenar tries an audacious back heel behind his back and it flies into the top left, hits the post and bounces across the line (and obviously over!). Great goal!

21′ GOAL! Sklenar receives a lobbed pass and slots home off the diving arms of Connolly. It rolls over the line and Olympia are ahead. The attack came through the middle!

This is rather uninspiring so far from Olympia, they’re maintaining possession well, but its all sideways and down the wings. They have the players to play through the middle and retain possession and cut the Rangers defence open but they seem reluctant to try it.

13′ GREAT SAVE! Vandermey delivers a great cross in to Sklenar who powers a header towards goals. It looked like a certain goal before Connolly dived across to push it away. Excellent save keeps it at 0-0.

13 minutes in now and the Rangers are giving a good account of themselves after a sluggish start.

Rangers looking the more dangerous when they are going forwards though, and more efficient with their possession. Olympia passing sideways, Rangers passing forwards.

4′ SHOT OFF! Despite the Warriors dominance of possession its the Rangers that register the first shot of the game, Nick L.A. rattles off a shot after jinking onto his left boot inside the 18 yard box, but it’s well off target.

4 minutes in now and Rangers have had about 4 touches.

Olympia knocking it around at will early on, Rangers have touched it twice, and one of those was to clear the danger for a corner.

KICK OFF! WE ARE UNDERWAY AT WARRIOR PARK!

Olympia Team sheet:

Northern Rangers Team sheet:

It’s Mark ‘Wiggo’ Wakefield bringing you this game from Warrior Park this afternoon. Looks to be a perfect day for a game of football and it should be a good one. Rangers showed a bit especially in the first half against South last week, whilst the Warriors looked like they’d finally clicked last week. Can they do it from the start this week? Hard to know. I’m going to run off and grab the team sheets.

The Warriors will enter this one as red hot favourites after seeming to click in the final 20 minutes against the Lions but they will be wanting to display that kind of form much earlier in games from here on out if they are to meet their lofty expectations. Lucas Hill and Gavin Hoy should bolster the side but Sam Conway will miss through injury. Their superior fitness was telling against Kingborough and after Rangers ran out of legs in the searing heat against South Hobart last week, it could again prove a decisive factor in this game. Rangers biggest problem is trying to convert goal scoring chances, they have looked a striker short through the opening fortnight and despite some nice passages of play are yet to find the back of the net.

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The appetite for a professional sporting franchise down here remains as ravenous as ever. Tasmanian’s love their sport and they have been starved of representation in National competitions, looked over time after time. The AFL clearly won’t be the ones to sate that hunger, thus FFA finds itself with the chance to both fill that gap in the market and strike a blow against the AFL in one fell swoop.